SOUTH PARIS — A Hartford man pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter in connection with a 2019 crash in Buckfield that killed an Orrington man.
Jarek Boyd Oxford County Jail photo
In a plea agreement, Jarek T.D. Boyd, 29, of 6 Old State Route 140, will spend up to four years in prison.
He and prosecutors settled on a 10-year sentence, with at least six years suspended.
At Boyd’s sentencing in September, prosecutors are expected to argue that Boyd spend four years behind bars; the defense can argue that his incarceration be less than four years.
When he’s released after serving his sentence, he will be on probation for four years, according to the agreement.
According to an affidavit by Oxford County Sheriff’s Deputy Donald H. McCormick, John Gabarra, 64, of Orrington died in the crash. He was a passenger in the back, driver’s side seat of a Buick Lucerne driven by Lisa Gabarra, 61, of Orrington, who suffered serious injuries from the crash.
Donna Cook, 88, was in the front seat and suffered serious injury.
McCormick predicted Lisa Gabarra and Cook would have months of recovery, rehabilitation and surgeries from the crash.
Boyd was indicted on multiple charges, including manslaughter, two counts of aggravated assault, three counts of criminal operating under the influence and criminal speed.
But prosecutors dismissed all of those charges and brought a new complaint earlier this month of a single manslaughter charge. It was that charge to which Boyd pleaded guilty in Oxford County Superior Court on Tuesday.
Manslaughter is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
No sentence date has been set in September.
Boyd remains free on $5,000 cash bail.
McCormick’s statement said he responded to a two-vehicle crash about 1 a.m. June 16, 2019, in Buckfield at the intersection of North Whitman School Road and Route 117. He saw a white Buick Lucerne in a ditch of the northbound lane facing the opposite direction. Both doors of the passenger side of the car had been removed. Black tire marks in the road suggested a car had spun in a circle, he wrote.
A maroon Chevrolet Camaro was facing south against a utility pole that blocked South Whitman School Road. The Camaro had “heavy front-end damage,” he wrote.
The utility pole had snapped as a result of the crash, McCormick later learned.
Air bags in both cars had deployed, suggesting “high-speed impact” at the time of the crash, he wrote.
An officer at the scene identified Boyd as the driver of the Camaro.
That officer told McCormick that Boyd said he had “glanced and did not see any oncoming traffic before proceeding through the intersection.”
Boyd told McCormick he had had not come to a complete stop at the intersection.
McCormick wrote that he could detect the odor of intoxicants on Boyd’s breath.
His eyes were “glassy, bloodshot and droopy and his speech appeared to be slow and sluggish,” suggesting he was intoxicated, McCormick wrote.
Because the crash resulted in a fatality, a blood draw was needed to determine Boyd’s blood-alcohol content, McCormick told Boyd.
He was taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway where Boyd agreed to have his blood drawn, McCormick wrote.
Results of that test showed his blood-alcohol contact was 0.17%, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08%.
McCormick wrote that the Camaro was was headed southeast on North Whitman School Road when Boyd failed to stop at the stop sign and slammed into the driver’s side of the Buick Lucerne, which was traveling on Route 117.
Both cars were totaled.
That damage “would lead a reasonable officer to believe Boyd’s Camaro was traveling at a high rate of speed,” McCormick wrote.
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